I'm a little crunchy

Crunchy. Adjective. Used to describe persons who have adjusted or altered their lifestyle for environmental reasons. Crunchy persons tend to be politically strongly left-leaning and may be additionally but not exclusively categorized as vegetarians, vegans, eco-tarians, conservationists, environmentalists, neo-hippies, tree huggers, nature enthusiasts, etc.

I've been described as hippie and tree hugging before. It doesn't come as a big surprise to those that know me that I'm a little on the crunchy side. When it came to my baby, I'd love to be as crunchy as it gets. However, a few things stood in my way. First off, my sweetly smelling newborn babe didn't co-sleep well. When we try, neither him nor us sleep well. Strike one. We thought we'd be putting him in childcare so while I would love nothing more than to cloth diaper, we didn't see it as an option. Now since we haven't needed childcare, I mildly regret that. Strike two. I think I get a semi strike for strike three. I was induced since the baby and I were in danger with him still being the womb. The entire 8 months he was bouncing around inside me, I would teeter totter the line of whether I wanted an epidural or not. I finally decided I did want it and I wanted a nice labor. Well thanks to the Poison (as my husband lovingly calls it), err, Pitocin, labor advanced very quickly. Within 2 hours, my sweet bambino was evicting himself and not taking NO for an answer. Then came the words I'll never forget.
"It's too late for the drugs"
I wish we would have a video camera on my face when the nurse said that sentence.
"NO DRUGS?! You've gotta be kidding me!!!"
Then stepped in the begging, screw all those crazy tree hugging hippie women, Rachel and I started begging.
"I can't do this. Pleeeeeeaaaaase. I won't do this. " (Yeah like that was an option)
Unfortunately Derek had other plans and he proceeded to remind me that he was coming out regardless and I better get on board. So strike three shouldn't be a whole strike, I went through labor naturally. Even if it wasn't my decision.

There are several other things that make me less crunchy, like for example that at 6 months Derek started formula instead of breastmilk. That was the best solution for both of us because of his reflux and now we pay outrageous amounts for hypoallergenic formula because he can't handle the cheap stuff. He has expensive demands like his Mama. :) I'm all about crunchy though and love organic food for him. If I had it my way, he'd be a cloth diapered, breastfed, co-sleeping, organically fed, crunchy baby. But if I've learned anything by being a Mama, it's that I've lost all control to make any of these decisions. And I'm ok with that so long as he's my happy bouncing baby boy.

This might a bit crunchy for me


But this one seems pretty neat!